Israel Kirzner
Professor Israel Kirzner has been not only a world-class economist, but also a notable Jewish rabbi, and he raised 13 children to boot. I only met Professor Kirzner towards the end of his teaching career, but I was lucky enough to see him in person weekly at the NYU colloquium on market processes for several years. (And although I consider him my friend, I have never called him anything but “Professor Kirzner.” I am shocked by the rudeness of some of his juniors who would call him, for instance, “Izzy.”)
Professor Kirzner was, for me, a model of academic integrity and of how to be a serious scholar while remaining humble. He was able to strongly disagree with someone without ever becoming abrasive or strident.
He was also such an example of moral integrity that, without ever raising his voice or becoming “moralistic,” everyone felt they had to behave better around him. I remember Sandy Ikeda telling me the story of a conference he was at that was also attended by Kirzner and Ludwig Lachmann. It was getting late on a Friday afternoon, and, before the sun set, Kirzner got up from the discussion to go back to his room before the Sabbath began. He looked at Lachmann, who was also Jewish, and said, “Are you coming?”
Despite the fact that Lachmann was over two decades older than Kirzner, Sandy told me that he immediately got up, saying, “Yes, Israel, of course.”
About 10 minutes later, he slipped back into the room, but with the admonition to everyone there: “Do not tell Israel that I came back!”
He had the same effect at the NYU colloquium: I remember he showed up unexpectedly one day, at a period when his appearances had become less frequent, and several people suddenly felt they might have behaved less well than if they had known he would be there. For instance, when Kirzner got off the elevator, one friend of mine leaned over to me and said, “Oh my, Kirzner is here, and I wore shorts today.” And you have to realize that Kirzner never would have chastised him for doing so: he might merely have looked over at him with the slightest hint of disapproval. But that was plenty to get people to behave themselves.
The last time I saw him, we both had the same comments to make about the paper being presented. We left the colloquium and happened to ride down the elevator together, along with Sandy. Professor Kirzner said to me, “Gene, it is really good to see you.” Then he linked his arm with mine, and we walked down the New York City sidewalk arm in arm.
I am going to try to find him when I am in New York this week and see him one more time, to thank him for what he has done for me.